It's nice to hear our manager not banging on about we have a young team, he talks about individuals and the game from a good prospective. This is a fair start by Ruben Selles.
We scored 2 goals and won a game , I'm having a few drinks tonight , in fact I may have had a few already
Thank god! The turning point of our season. Another thing I didn’t really consider is the fact Selles is Spanish so it should help with Puerta and Zambrano
We were on about this earlier. That was one of the performances of the season so far from Puerta. Every blade of grass with purpose.
It was so important to get that result to break the cycle of doom and gloom. The performances improved significantly a few weeks ago, but without a win it was easy for people to just keep the negativity going and write us off. That negativity wasn't helping the players belief and it really was a damaging cycle. You could feel it when Slater missed and certainly when they equalised. We restricted them to next to nothing, but just like Blackburn and Watford they somehow scored out of nowhere. This time we had the goals to overcome it. We should've had many more, but credit to Pedro and Burstow for the finishes. Those are so important and we've simply not seen enough of it this season. Hopefully that gives everyone a bit more confidence and that starts a more favourable loop which leads to us taking more chances. I was a bit apprehensive about how Swansea would dominate the ball and how we'd deal with that. In recent years we've started well against them but found ourselves pinned back as the game has gone on. But today we played such a high line it just didn't let them get near our goal with any regularity at all. At 2-1 I thought this is going to be backs to the wall now but we stayed high and just kept them well away. Really brilliant shape defensively. We are a decent side. We shouldn't be down the bottom with this squad and we won't be down there come the spring. We go on about strikers but we do have a decent one in Pedro. No he's not Delap but he's decent and he knows where the goal is. Puerta's aggression is welcome and has been missing, but he can't take it as far as that every week, he was very lucky not to be sent off. There were two or three probable yellows before he eventually got booked for waving the imaginary card of all things, and then the rugby tackle whilst on a yellow was really risky and he was incredibly lucky. But when you think about the Watford equaliser you can sort of see why in that position he was desperate to stop a break.
What a difference a win makes to the mood, a well deserved win, and you can clearly see Ruben's stamp on the team already. I thought with Regan's miss and Puerta hitting the post and the ball bouncing wide off the keeper, it was going to be one of those days. Fortunately, it turned out not to be the case. Overall, a much better performance with a better structure to our play, Puerta was excellent and along with Alzate and Slater the midfield looked more cohesive. Longman had a good game, Kamara less so, he really didn't get into the game. Giles looks more like what we expected from him, he looks a lot more settled. Pedro is really a clever player, and can see why he starts, and Burstow is starting to look a very good acquisition. We pressed the ball high and with Burstows excellent goal it finally paid dividends. A much-needed win, let's hope this is the start of a run of positive results
When they win were a really good side and our League position is false. When they lose they were ****. Them's the rules. First lesson of press training. Truth is they weren't prepared for an aggressive high press, and he's trying to save face.
It's why I can't fathom those that said we were clearly the worst in the division and clearly going down when it didn't seem apparent particularly over the last 5 games. Particularly under Selles the chances we've created have been so much clearer and I have no doubt a few additions in January and we'll be fine.
We are 6th in terms of big chances missed in the Championship (31). The other teams that have missed more are very attacking teams who create loads - Leeds, Middlesbrough, Norwich, Coventry and perhaps surprisingly Luton. If we add a clinical edge to our game we will be absolutely fine.
That set up is also light years away from the team under Walter that was so open all of the time. We were well drilled yesterday and hard to get through.
Yes, as were a number of teams down the bottom with us. Oxford for instance are conceding far more goals and losing just as many games as us and just because they jagged a win against us against all the odds somehow we were clearly so much worse than them underlines just how negative some on here became about our prospects. If we get something from Preston and begin to pull away, January starts to look quite different.
Another big plus on yesterday…no yellow card for Hughes! While defensively Jones is better positionally, Hughes is so much better on the ball. Alfie was wasteful at times just playing long straight balls that went through to their keeper. If the speculation is correct than Bindon at Reading would be a great long term replacement for Jones.
Yeah Alzate hasnt been mentioned on here. I was watching on tv while sober as was Ill, so noticed a bit more than usual. He gets the ball in some really good positions, sees the pass but then his passing was terrible yesterday. The way he is keen to ping it about suggests it was just one of those days (as if it was that bad, no manager would let him play to his weaknesses). Looked a player though and can’t wait to see him when he gets touch/confidence (or whatever it is) back).
